Facilitating User Interactions Based On Proximity

ABSTRACT

Techniques are described for providing location-based information and functionality to people and computing devices in various ways. In at least some situations, the techniques include enabling multiple people in a common geographic area to interact in various ways, such as via devices capable of communications (e.g., cellular telephones, computing devices with wired and/or wireless communications capabilities, etc.). In addition, the techniques include enabling the creation and maintenance of location-based virtual groups of users (also referred to as “clouds”), such as for users of mobile and/or fixed-location devices. Such clouds may enable various types of interactions between group members, and may be temporary and/or mobile.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of provisional U.S. PatentApplication No. 60/790,276 (Attorney Docket #60545-8002-US00), filedApr. 7, 2006 and entitled “A Model For Proximity-Based UserInteraction,” which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The following disclosure relates generally to techniques forfacilitating user interactions based on proximity, such as to providefunctionality to location-based virtual groups of users.

BACKGROUND

There are many situations in which people would benefit from receivinginformation based on their geographic location, such as to obtaininformation about businesses near the geographic location and/or tointeract with other people near the geographic location. This isparticularly true when people are mobile, such as traveling or otherwisechanging their current geographic location. Unfortunately, existingtechniques for providing location-based information and functionality topeople suffer from numerous problems.

Thus, it would be beneficial to provide improved techniques forproviding location-based information and functionality to people andcomputing devices, as well as to provide various additional relatedcapabilities and benefits.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1A is a network diagram illustrating interactions between variousdevices and systems located in various geographic locations.

FIGS. 1B-1F illustrate examples of providing location-based informationand functionality to a user via an example graphical user interfacedisplayed on a mobile device of the user.

FIGS. 2A-2C illustrate examples of providing location-based informationand functionality to various geographical locations indicated on maps.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a computing system suitable forexecuting an embodiment of the described Cloud Management system.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram of an example embodiment of a Cloud Managementroutine.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram of an example embodiment of a CloudParticipation routine.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Techniques are described for providing location-based information andfunctionality to people and computing devices in various ways. In atleast some embodiments, the techniques include enabling multiple peoplein a common geographic area to interact in various ways. For example, ifeach of the people is a user of one or more devices capable ofcommunications (e.g., cellular telephones, computing devices with wiredand/or wireless communications capabilities, etc.), the users may beallowed to inter-communicate via their communication-capable devices invarious ways. Furthermore, in at least some embodiments, some or allsuch users in a particular geographic area may further be allowed tointer-communicate with one or more entities in or related to thegeographic area, such as one or more businesses.

In at least some embodiments, the techniques for providinglocation-based information and functionality to people and computingdevices include enabling the creation and maintenance of location-basedvirtual groups of users, such as for users of mobile and/orfixed-location devices. The location-based virtual groups, also referredto as “clouds,” may enable various types of interactions between groupmembers in various embodiments, as described in greater detail below. Insome embodiments, the clouds may be temporary, such as to exist for onlydays, hours, or minutes. Furthermore, in at least some embodiments,clouds may be mobile, such as to move with one or more people, objects,or other entities. Additional details related to clouds are includedbelow. In addition, in at least some embodiments, the describedtechniques are automatically performed by an embodiment of a CloudManagement system, as described in greater detail below.

In at least some embodiments, the communication-capable devices of theusers include networked devices capable of communicating with othernetworked devices, whether via wireless or wired protocols. Furthermore,an arbitrary set of networked device users is enabled to join a cloud inwhich they may interact in a specified fashion, such as based onsoftware executing on the networked devices or hardware embedded in thenetworked devices, and/or via one or more central server computingsystems that interact with the networked devices. In variousembodiments, the networked devices communicate their locations,user-entered pass codes and other information to a central server, andthe central server uses this transmitted information as well as otherinformation (e.g., personal profile information about the device users,current time, cloud configuration, etc.) to determine whether a user isadmitted to any of the various clouds it manages. Furthermore, in atleast some embodiments, a cloud is “anchored” to a specific point (e.g.,a latitude, longitude, altitude coordinate) or entity (a person,building, vehicle, etc.), referred to as the cloud's anchor. A user mayparticipate in any number of clouds simultaneously in at least someembodiments.

FIG. 1A is a network diagram illustrating example interactions betweenvarious devices and systems located in various geographic locations. Theillustrated example includes one or more central server systems 100operated by an entity (not shown) to provide cloud managementfunctionality (e.g., as a business, such as for profit). In thisexample, various mobile communication capable client devices 115 andfixed-location communication-capable client devices 120 are able tocommunicate with the central server(s), as are one or more devices 130used by cloud administrator users who may configure and manipulateclouds. In this example, two or more communication-capable devices areco-located in a common geographic area, and are participating in alocation-based cloud 125 a on behalf of their users (not shown). Thedevices in the cloud may include one or more mobile communicationcapable client devices 115 a and/or one or more fixed-locationcommunication-capable client devices 120 a. The devices of the cloud andtheir users may interact in various ways, including by sendingcommunications to each other via the central server system(s) and/ordirectly between each other.

For illustrative purposes, some embodiments are described below in whichspecific types of users and devices interact in specific manners as partof specific types of clouds, such as to obtain specific types offunctionality coordinated by one or more cloud management systemsprovided by one or more central servers. These examples are provided forillustrative purposes and are simplified for the sake of brevity, andthe inventive techniques can be used in a wide variety of othersituations, some of which are discussed below.

In various embodiments, one person will act as a cloud administrator fora cloud. This person may, for example, establish a geographical boundaryfor the cloud such that a user physically present within thegeographical boundary may be allowed to join the cloud, and may furtherdefine various configuration information for the cloud (e.g., byestablishing a pass code that users will specify to join the cloud; byestablishing termination criteria to determine when a temporary cloudwill end, such as a specific start and end date/time for the cloud;etc.). A cloud administrator may further specify one or more otheradmission criteria regarding which users are allowed to join a cloud, asdiscussed in greater detail below. In addition, the administrator mayalso establish rules of interaction among users who are members of acloud, and can dissolve the cloud manually if desired (e.g., if there isno end date/time set for the cloud or the administrator wishes toterminate the cloud before the established end date/time). Anadministrator can also decide to transfer administrator status to orshare administrator status with another user or users in the cloud or adesignated agent who is not in the cloud. In the case of sharedadministrator status, all users designated as administrators generallyhave full administrative control over the cloud, except that there maybe some limitations on administrator privileges for administrators otherthan the original administrator, e.g., a secondary administrator may notbe able to disable the administrative privileges of the originaladministrator.

A cloud administrator may choose to participate in the cloud or notparticipate, i.e., he could define the cloud but never actually join ithimself. The administrator can specify a fee that each user must pay inorder to join the cloud. The fee may vary among users, depending on, forexample, a user's status or location, e.g., users who are already insidea venue or the first N users to join the cloud may not have to pay tojoin′ an associated cloud; alternatively, the administrator may chooseto manually apply various fee levels to specific users or groups ofusers. In various embodiments, the administrator(s) can monitor orotherwise view information about cloud activity, e.g., the number ofusers who have joined and/or exited, the number of conversations inprogress, etc. both during the cloud's existence and after itstermination. A record or log of all or some cloud activities (e.g., useractions) could be provided (either while the cloud is in progress orafterward or both) to some or all users who participated in a cloud.

A non-exclusive list of example forms of user interaction rules inside acloud is as follows: (a) a user may reveal personal details to all or asubset of the other users participating in the cloud, e.g., at aprofessional conference, a user participating in a cloud associated withthe conference may choose to reveal his professional history, hiscurrent company and position and a set of positions he is hiring for;(b) a user may only be able to view others' personal details if hereveals his own details; (c) a user may send or broadcast messages orother content consisting of text, video, images or any other contenttransmittable over an electronic network, to other individual users orto groups of users; (d) a user may block messages from any user or allusers; (e) at some administrator-specified maximum frequency, users maypost messages to all users in the cloud; (f) users may request thatanother user agree to link as a “friend,” which is a bidirectional trustrelationship that transcends the duration of the cloud and may provideaccess to information and capabilities that are not granted to othermembers of the cloud; (g) users may “bookmark” other users, whichcreates a unidirectional relationship from the first (bookmarking) userto the second (bookmarked) user; (g) users may reveal their physicallocations to either individuals or to all users in the cloud; theability to see the physical location of other users may or may notrequire that a user reciprocally reveal his physical location; (i) userswho have been invited to join a cloud but who have not yet joined may beable to communicate with participants within the cloud and/or seeactivity information associated with a cloud during and after thecloud's lifetime; and (j) a user may or may not be enabled to inviteother users to join the cloud.

As an example of case (i), if a cloud were initiated for a party atJohn's home, Frank (a user who was invited to the party and given thepass code to join the cloud but who has not yet left home to go to theparty) can see who is already at the party, as well as potentially otheractivity information (e.g., communications to some or all users in thecloud).

In various embodiments, a cloud itself is mobile. If the cloud's anchor(described earlier) moves, the cloud also moves. The cloud's anchorpoint/entity, shape and size can be specified by the cloudadministrator, and may be altered by the administrator at any time. Forexample, a teacher plans to take 27 children on a walking field trip. Heequips each child with a school-provided inexpensive wireless networkeddevice (with the appropriate software or hardware) before departure. Theteacher establishes a circular cloud, anchored on him, and specifies acloud radius large enough that the children should not be more than thatdistance away throughout the field trip. Before departing, the teacherasks all the children to gather within the perimeter and admits them allto the cloud. As the field trip progresses, if any child leaves theboundary of the cloud, the teacher is alerted.

In order to prevent frequent unnecessary alerts, various techniques maybe employed to reduce “noise” at the boundary of the cloud due to usersdrifting in and out of the cloud, such as inadvertently (either becausethey are legitimately briefly exiting and re-entering the cloud orbecause of occasional errors in location determination on a user'sdevice). One simple example technique to address this issue is to applyspatial and/or temporal hysteresis to the locations of some or all cloudparticipants with respect to the cloud boundary. In the case of temporalhysteresis, the user would need to be outside the cloud boundary forsome minimum amount of time before he was identified as having exitedthe cloud. In the case of spatial hysteresis, the cloud participantwould need to be beyond the boundary of the cloud (computed as shortestdistance to the boundary) by at least a minimum distance before he wouldbe identified as having exited the cloud.

In various embodiments, a cloud may be used for commercial purposes, inwhich case the administrator may pay a fee (which may be a fixed amount,a share of revenue based on activities that occur within the cloud, afunction of the number of users who are targeted to join the cloudand/or who actually join the cloud, or some other function) or providesome other consideration in order to use the cloud mechanism forcommercial purposes. For example, a company like ESPN may wish to createa cloud at a specific sporting event, e.g., a Seattle Seahawks game, inorder to offer a real-time sports information service to users attendingthe game. In some commercial-use embodiments, the administrator willhave the option of being the only user enabled to post messages to allusers or to any subset of the users in the cloud. As another example, amuseum could establish a cloud around the entire space of the facilityand thus allow anyone who entered the facility to join the cloud.Participants in the cloud would then receive location-sensitive guidanceand information about works of art, e.g., when a user is standing infront of a specific painting, his networked device would receiveinformation about that painting.

In yet another example, a restaurant, bar or similar establishment couldestablish a cloud within the physical boundaries of a store and allowall customers who join the cloud to place orders for food, drinks, etc.or make other requests of the establishment's staff. The orderingcustomer's message and his location are transmitted from the mobiledevice to a server and then to a client device (either another mobiledevice, a PC or other networked device) managed by the establishment.The human server then responds to the request (which could includesending messages to the user's mobile device) and uses the locationinformation accompanying the request message to determine theappropriate customer to service. Similarly, certain establishments,e.g., coffee shops, could allow customers to pre-specify their ordersuch that when the customer arrives within the cloud boundary, the orderis placed and the food/drink/etc. preparation process can begin whilethe customer is in line. This provides for a form of pre-ordering that(a) is extremely likely to be consummated with payment by the customer(since he must arrive on site before the order is placed), and (b)allows for appropriate preparation timing (e.g., for a hot drink). Asanother example, a pizza delivery establishment with multiple deliveryoutlets could create a cloud encompassing their delivery area. Userswithin the delivery area could order pizza from a mobile device and thepizza delivery company would route the order to the nearest deliveryoutlet for processing. (Orders from outside the delivery area would notbe allowed.)

In various embodiments, there will be no cloud administrator. In thiscase, a set of default rules, specified by a central server or thedevice user or a combination of the two, will apply to the userinteractions in the cloud. This type of cloud is known as an “ad hoccloud” and is established when two or more networked location-awaredevices come within a pre-defined range (specified by the device usersor centrally) of each other and are configured to participate in ad hocclouds. The configuration can be controlled by the device user such that(a) he can specify whether he must approve the joining of an ad hoccloud; (b) only ad hoc clouds meeting certain criteria are surfaced tothe user, e.g., based on the personal characteristics of the seconddevice owner (e.g., gender, single/married, is the other person alreadylinked as a friend, physical characteristics such as age, height,weight, etc., general location of residence, job type, religiousbeliefs, etc.); (c) he can specify the maximum number of people allowedin an ad hoc cloud in which he is participating (which will both stopothers from joining a cloud for which he is already a member and themaximum number of participants has been reached, and stop him fromjoining another cloud if that cloud already has greater than or equal tothe maximum number of cloud users he has specified). All suchconfiguration information is sent from the client device to a centralserver. In various embodiments, the central server detects when usersare in appropriate proximity (based on configuration) to join an ad hoccloud and determines whether the criteria established by the potentialcloud co-participants match the profile information of the otheruser(s). In the case of a cloud between exactly two people, both users'profiles must match the other user's criteria for either user to bepresented an opportunity to join the cloud. In the case of an ad hoccloud among more than two users, a variety of techniques may be employedto determine whether a user is presented with an opportunity to join thecloud. One such algorithm is that each user's profile must match atleast N other user's criteria in order to be presented the opportunityto join the cloud, where N is greater than or equal to 1. Anotherexample is to allow current cloud participants to vote, and only if asufficient number (which could be a majority, two-thirds or some otherfraction of votes) acquiesce (e.g., vote “yes”) is the new userpresented with the opportunity to join the cloud. Such voting by cloudmembers (also referred to as “participants”) may also be used in atleast some embodiments with clouds configured by one or moreadministrators and/or for purposes other than admitting new users to thecloud, such as if allowed by the administrator and/or in some situationsto take certain types of actions without explicit administratorapproval.

In various embodiments, a cloud will create a residual permission groupthat survives the cloud's termination. Such a permission group wouldallow users in the cloud to, for example, communicate online with otherusers from the cloud even after the cloud was terminated, either througha proxy (e.g., a website that does not reveal users' email addresses, acentral server, etc.), directly by email, or via some other means. Insuch embodiments, users may be empowered to opt out of the residualpermission group, in which case they may be unable to interact withothers in the permission group.

In various embodiments, search functionality is provided to users viatheir networked devices, such as to discover existing clouds (e.g., tohelp a user determine whether there are any clouds he would beinterested in joining) and/or to identify other information of interest.Such search functionality could filter the results based on those cloudsthe searching user could potentially participate in. As examples, “showonly those clouds that are nearby and configured as visible (by thecloud administrator or another method of cloud configuration)” or “showonly those clouds that are ‘open’ to arbitrary users or that haveentrance admission criteria that the searching user matches.” In somecases, a searching user may be allowed to see activity in a cloud beforejoining and even interact with participants (e.g., in a more limitedfashion than if the searching user became a cloud participant),depending on the cloud configuration. In various embodiments, the userwill receive a proactive notification on his mobile device when he is inthe proximity of clouds that he is able to join. Such notification couldbe accompanied with information about the cloud, its participants,previous activity, and so on, and direct him to the nearest physicallocation in which he would be within the boundary of the cloud (andcould therefore join).

With regard to implementation, the general case consists of at leastthree components: a server component, a client component, a networkeddevice, e.g., a PC (but which could be one and the same with the clientcomponent) and a database component. The client is generally a mobiledevice that communicates via wireless signals over a wireless networkwith the server. The server (which, for scaling purposes, can beimplemented as many physical servers) also sends information to theclient, e.g., when the client is admitted to or exits a cloud, theserver notifies the client as such and the client takes appropriateactions. The networked device, which might be the client, but whichmight be a separate device and is not necessarily mobile, is used todefine and configure the cloud on the server. The database component isused by the server to store all cloud definition and configuration data,cloud activity and participation data and all other informationassociated with clouds.

A client device is in at least some embodiments capable of determiningits location via global positioning system (GPS) signals or otherlocation technologies, and if so the location information may betransmitted frequently to the server. Some or all information entered bythe user into the client device, e.g., pass codes, messages to otherusers in a cloud, user profile updates, etc., is also transmitted to theserver.

The networked device is used to define and configure a cloud. It canalso be a client, but is often separate, e.g., the client might be acellular phone while the networked device is a home PC. The networkeddevice communicates via network signals (either wireless or wired) withthe server and the user interface presented to the user is guided inlarge part by the instructions received from the server. Informationentered by the user (e.g., the definition of a cloud) is transmitted tothe server and responses (e.g., status of a cloud) are sent from theserver to the networked device.

The software running on the server acts as a controller for the userinterface on both the networked device and the client. Informationreceived by the server from these two components (e.g., user-enteredcloud definitions or pass codes) is stored in the database componentalong with information generated by the server (e.g., status changes ina cloud when access to join a cloud is granted by the server to a user).Because the server receives information from all users, it maintains acentral model (which is backstored in the database component) of thestate of all clouds and enforces all rules associated with a cloud.

The database component is used as an information store for the server.Cloud definitions (physical geometry and location information defining acloud), rules associated with a cloud (e.g., whether a pass code isrequired for access, whether the cloud has an administrator or not, theattributes of or other admission criteria for users allowed to join acloud, maximum users allowed in a cloud, etc.) user activity (e.g.,messages sent between users within a cloud, enter/exit events, etc.)permissions, access decisions, user location information over time andso on which either flow to the server from the client and/or networkeddevice or which are generated by software running on the server can bestored for later retrieval in the database component. The databasecomponent, like the server component, might be implemented as multiplephysical database instances for scaling reasons.

FIGS. 2A-2C illustrate examples of providing location-based informationand functionality to various geographical locations indicated on maps.In particular, FIG. 2A illustrates a map 205 that shows image data(e.g., a satellite image or other photo) with road annotations for ageographical area corresponding to a section of the city of Bellevue,Wash. A particular user has a current geographic location 210 that isshown on the map with a black triangle. The illustrated map may beprovided to, for example, the user for display, such as by a centralserver as part of a graphical user interface to provide access tocloud-related functionality. In this example, information about existingclouds in the geographical area of the map is not displayed to the user,but in other embodiments such information may be displayed.

For example, FIG. 2B illustrates an alternative map 250 for the samegeographical area, but with information about various existing clouds215 being displayed on the map. This map 250 may be provided to and/ordisplayed to the user in response to, for example, a request from theuser for information about some or all clouds in the geographical area.In this example, the map 250 includes road information but not imagedata, although in other embodiments the information about the clouds 215may instead be displayed in other manners (e.g., as part of an imagedata map such as that displayed in FIG. 2A). In this example, thedisplayed clouds have a variety of types, and in other embodiments avariety of other types of clouds may be displayed. For example, clouds215 d and 215 e correspond to parts of Bellevue High School, such as thesmaller cloud 215 e corresponding to a particular location within theschool grounds (e.g., a particular classroom, student or staff gatheringarea, etc.), and the larger cloud 215 d corresponding to the entireschool. Clouds 215 f and 215 g are overlapping clouds corresponding toportions of a hotel, such as to correspond to one or more of the hotellobby, pool area, a particular floor (e.g., based on a group stayingtogether on the floor), restaurant, etc. A cloud 215 i in this examplecorresponds to a retail store, in this case a Toys ‘R’ Us store. A cloud215 j corresponds to the Bellevue Convention Center, such as a temporarycloud that corresponds to a particular current convention in progress.In addition, a cloud 215 h has been established to correspond to amoving vehicle, such as a bus. In this example, a direction legend 209is also illustrated.

In this example, the user in the location 210 is eligible to participatein 3 clouds that encompass that location. In this example, a cloud 215 bis centered around a park, such as to correspond to a temporary festivalor other event occurring in the park. In addition, a nearby mall hasmultiple clouds that encompass the location 210, including a cloud 215 ccorresponding to the entire mall, and a cloud 215 a corresponding to aparticular store in the mall. In this example, the available clouds areillustrated using dashed lines, such as to provide information to theuser regarding clouds that the user may join (e.g., by selecting thedisplayed representation of the cloud on the map), although in otherembodiments some or all of the clouds may be displayed in other manners.

FIG. 2C illustrates a map 255 similar to the map 250 of FIG. 2B, but itcorresponds to a time shortly after the time represented in FIG. 2B. Inparticular, the user has moved to a new location 210 in which cloud 215b continues to be available to the user, but in which clouds 215 a and215 c are no longer available. Similarly, the moving vehicle hastraveled during the time interval, as has its corresponding cloud 215 h.Other previously displayed clouds are not displayed here, such as basedon user-specified modifications to the display (e.g., to show onlyclouds that exist within a specified distance from the user's location,such as a distance corresponding to approximately 6 blocks).

It will be appreciated that the details of FIGS. 2A-2C are provided forillustrative purposes, and are not intended to limit the scope of theinvention.

FIGS. 1B-1F depict the screen of a mobile device showing an examplecloud user interface that demonstrates user interaction in certainembodiments. In FIG. 1B, a user is notified that his physical locationis within the physical boundary of the cloud entitled “John's Party,”such as based on the user moving into the cloud geographical area. Themobile device previously sent the user's location to the server, and theserver determined the location was within the polygon associated withthe cloud “John's Party.” It also determined that the user is authorizedto join this cloud. In this example, the user selects the “OK” option inFIG. 1B by pressing the 1 key on his mobile device, which moves the userto FIG. 1C.

FIG. 1C exemplifies a cloud configured to require a pass code. After theuser enters the pass code, the user interface of FIG. 1D is displayed orotherwise presented to the user. In this example, the user has joinedthe cloud and sees via the user interface illustrated in FIG. 1D thatthere are 44 other people already participating in the cloud. The useris offered a few options, including viewing all the cloud participants,viewing people he has saved to his “Favorite People” list (which haszero people in it, since this user just joined the cloud) and sending amessage to all cloud participants (which is a capability that may or maynot be present in a cloud, depending on the cloud configuration and thecurrent state of the cloud, as described earlier). The user chooses theoption “View all participants” and moves to FIG. 1E.

In FIG. 1E, the user is presented with a list of 10 cloud participantsout of 45 total (44 other users plus this user). The user can choose tosee additional users by choosing a page number at the bottom of the listor may choose one of the users from the list. In this example, the userchooses “Jennifer Stevens” which takes him to FIG. 1F.

In FIG. 1F, the user is presented with information that the cloudparticipant Jennifer Stevens has indicated she is willing to reveal toother cloud participants. The user is presented with four options forinteracting with Jennifer, including sending her a message, adding herto his Favorite People list, inviting her to be his friend (whichJennifer must accept in order for the formal relationship to beeffected) or revealing his location to Jennifer. In the latter case,Jennifer would receive a message indicating that this user has revealedhis location. In various embodiments, Jennifer would be able to view hislocation on a map so she could find him within the confines of thecloud.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of a servercomputing system 300 that is suitable for performing at least some ofthe described techniques, such as by acting as a central server tomanage the creation and operation of clouds. The computing system 300includes a central processing unit (“CPU”) 305, various input/output(“I/O”) components 310, storage 320, and memory 330, with theillustrated I/O components including a display 311, a network connection312, a computer-readable media drive 313, and other I/O devices 315(e.g., keyboards, mice or other pointing devices, microphones, speakers,etc.).

In the illustrated embodiment, an embodiment of a Cloud Managementsystem 350 executes in memory 330 in order to perform at least some ofthe described techniques, such as to provide location-based informationand functionality to people and computing devices in various ways. Inparticular, cloud administrator users may interact with the CloudManagement system in order to define configuration information forclouds and manage the clouds, such as via communication-capable clientdevices 350 and/or other computing systems 370. In addition, variouscommunication-capable client devices 350 may interact with the CloudManagement system, such as to provide location information for thedevices and/or information about users of the devices, so that the CloudManagement system can determine clouds that are available to the devicesand their users. In this example embodiment, cloud definitioninformation, user information, and information about clouds (e.g., theirmembership, historical cloud interaction information, etc.) are storedin databases (“DBs”) 322-324 respectively on store 320, although suchinformation may be stored in other manners in other embodiments.

One or more other systems 345 may also be optionally executing in memory330 in this example, such as payment processing system to handle feesand other payments for the Cloud Management system, a search engine toprovide search capabilities to users of devices 350 other than toindicate cloud-related information, etc. The devices 350 and systems 370may each have one or more programs 353 and 379, respectively, executingin memory 357 and 377, respectively, to provide various functionality.For example, the programs 353 may include a Web browser or other clientprogram (e.g., a client program specific to the Cloud Management system)that a user may use to interact with the Cloud Management system, suchas a program that provides a graphical user interface to users in otherto provide various functionality related to participation in clouds.Similarly, the programs 379 may include a client program to allow a userto define or otherwise configure clouds, as well as to monitor andmanage existing clouds. In addition, the programs 353 and/or 379 mayprovide a variety of other types of functionality in other embodiments,including to determine location information for the devices 350. Whilenot illustrated here, the storage 351 and 371 on the devices 350 andsystems 370, respectively, may store a variety of types of information,such as for storage 351 on a device to store information specific to auser of the device (e.g., user preference information, user attributeinformation relevant to determining whether the user is eligible to beadmitted to clouds, etc.), to clouds and cloud-related interactions(e.g., to linked friends and bookmarked users, to communications sent toand/or received from other cloud members, etc.).

It will be appreciated that the illustrated computing systems anddevices are merely illustrative and are not intended to limit the scopeof the present invention. Computing system 300 and/or devices 350 may beconnected to other devices that are not illustrated, including throughone or more networks such as the Internet or via the Web. Moregenerally, a “client” or “server” computing system or device maycomprise any combination of hardware or software that can interact andperform the described types of functionality, including withoutlimitation desktop or other computers, database servers, network storagedevices and other network devices, PDAs, cellphones, wireless phones,pagers, electronic organizers, Internet appliances, television-basedsystems (e.g., using set-top boxes and/or personal/digital videorecorders), and various other consumer products that include appropriateinter-communication capabilities. In addition, the functionalityprovided by the illustrated systems may in some embodiments bedistributed in various components (not shown), and some functionality ofthe illustrated systems may not be provided and/or other additionalfunctionality may be available.

In addition, while various items are illustrated as being stored inmemory or on storage while being used, these items or portions of themcan be transferred between memory and other storage devices for purposesof memory management and/or data integrity. Alternatively, in otherembodiments some or all of the software systems and/or components mayexecute in memory on another device and communicate with the illustratedcomputing system via inter-computer communication. Some or all of thesystem components or data structures may also be stored (e.g., assoftware instructions or structured data) on a computer-readable medium,such as a hard disk, a memory, a network, or a portable media article tobe read by an appropriate drive or via an appropriate connection. Thesystem components and data structures can also be transmitted asgenerated data signals (e.g., as part of a carrier wave or other analogor digital propagated signal) on a variety of computer-readabletransmission mediums, including wireless-based and wired/cable-basedmediums, and can take a variety of forms (e.g., as part of a single ormultiplexed analog signal, or as multiple discrete digital packets orframes). Such computer program products may also take other forms inother embodiments. Accordingly, the present invention may be practicedwith other computer system configurations.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram of an example embodiment of a Cloud Managementroutine. The routine may be provided by, for example, execution of theCloud Management system 340 of FIG. 3, such as to provide location-basedinformation and functionality to people and computing devices in variousways.

The routine begins at step 405, where it receives a request forinformation or functionality related to clouds, or it receivesinformation regarding one or more clouds, users, administrators orcommunication-capable devices. The routine continues to step 410 todetermine whether information was received, and if so continues to step415 to store the information. The information may include, for example,cloud configuration information from an administrator, information abouta user (e.g., current user location, user preferences, etc.) from acommunication-capable device, information about a communication-capabledevice (e.g., current device location), information about cloudmanagement (e.g., votes from members of a cloud regarding whether toadmit a new user to the cloud), etc. The routine then continues to step420 to optionally take one or more automated actions in response to thereceived information (e.g., to determine whether cloud availability haschanged for a user or device based on a change in location or otherchange in relevant attribute information, to notify a user or device ofnew availability to join a cloud, to determine whether to admit a newuser to a cloud based on received votes from other cloud members, etc.).

If it is instead determined in step 410 that a request is received, theroutine continues to step 425 to automatically determine whether toapprove the request. For example, some types of requests may always beapproved, such as a request from a user for information about cloudsavailable to the user and/or about prior cloud-related interactions bythe user. In addition, if the request is from a user to join a cloud,the routine may automatically determine whether to approve the requestbased on whether the user location and other user attributes satisfy anyadmission criteria for the cloud. Alternatively, if the cloudconfiguration indicates that a decision to allow a user to join a cloudis based on a vote by other members of the cloud, the routine mayautomatically determine whether to approve the request by solicitingsuch votes from the other cloud members and analyzing them oncereceived. If it is determined in step 430 that the request is notapproved, the routine continues to step 435 to send a non-approval orerror response message to the requester. Otherwise, after step 430 theroutine continues to step 440 to optionally obtain a fee related to therequest, if such a fee exists. If a fee exists and is obtained, theroutine continues to step 445 to respond to the request as appropriate(e.g., to add a user to a group as requested, to provide search resultsor query results related to clouds to a user in response to a requestfor the information, to add information for a user such as a bookmark toanother user, to forward a communication to another group member or toperform other user interactions for users in a cloud, etc.). While notillustrated in this embodiment, if a fee exists but is not obtained, theroutine may in some embodiments proceed to step 435 to send an errormessage, or may instead perform the request without the fee.

After steps 420, 435 and 445, the routine continues to step 485 tooptionally perform other operations as appropriate, such as to performperiodic housekeeping operations. For example, matches between userlocations and clouds' geographic areas may be occasionally checked, suchas to identify new ad hoc or other clouds that have become available fora user, previously available clouds that are no longer available, etc.After step 435, the routine continues to step 495 to determine whetherto continue. If so, the routine returns to step 405, and if notcontinues to step 499 and ends.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram of an example embodiment of a CloudParticipation routine. The routine may be provided by, for example,execution of a program on a client device to enable participation by auser of the device in various cloud-related functionality, such as aprogram 353 of FIG. 3.

The routine begins in step 505, where it receives information from anexternal system or device (e.g., a cloud management system on a centralserver, a communication-capable device of another user in a cloud,etc.), information from a user, or an indication to perform periodicprocessing (e.g., based on expiration of a timer). If it is determinedin step 510 that information from a user was received in step 505 (e.g.,a request from the user for cloud-related search information or othercloud information, a request to join a cloud, a request to perform anindicated interaction with one or more other users who are cloudparticipants, a request to provide a vote response to the cloudmanagement system, etc.), the routine continues to step 515 to store thereceived information and/or to send the received information to a cloudmanagement system and/or device of another cloud participant. If it isinstead determined in step 510 that external information was received instep 505 (e.g., previously requested information received from a cloudmanagement system, a notification of availability to join an ad hoc orother cloud, a communication or other interaction request from anothercloud participant, etc.), the routine continues to step 525 to processthe received information, and in step 530 to optionally take one or moreactions based on the received information (e.g., to display some or allof the received information to the user, such as if previously requestedinformation is received).

If it is instead determined in step 510 to perform periodic processing,the routine continues to step 540 to gather and/or process information(e.g., current location information for a user or device, to determinewhether any ad hoc clouds are available with other devices and users,etc.). The routine then continues to step 545 to store the resultinginformation and/or to send the resulting information to a cloudmanagement system, such as to send information regarding a determinedcurrent location to the cloud management system. After step 545, theroutine continues to step 550 to optionally present the resultinginformation to one or more users, such as to present information aboutan available determined ad hoc cloud. After steps 515, 530, or 550, theroutine continues to step 585 to optionally perform other operations asappropriate, such as to perform housekeeping operations. After step 585,the routine continues to step 595 to determine whether to continue. Ifso, the routine returns to step 505, and if not continues to step 599and ends.

While not illustrated here, a program on a device used by a cloudadministrator may similarly perform a routine to provide variousfunctionality to the cloud administrator, including to obtaininformation about new or modified cloud definitions from theadministrator and to interact with a cloud management system to applythe cloud definitions.

Those skilled in the art will also appreciate that in some embodimentsthe functionality provided by the routines discussed above may beprovided in alternative ways, such as being split among more routines orconsolidated into fewer routines. Similarly, in some embodimentsillustrated routines may provide more or less functionality than isdescribed, such as when other illustrated routines instead lack orinclude such functionality respectively, or when the amount offunctionality that is provided is altered. In addition, while variousoperations may be illustrated as being performed in a particular manner(e.g., in serial or in parallel) and/or in a particular order, thoseskilled in the art will appreciate that in other embodiments theoperations may be performed in other orders and in other manners. Thoseskilled in the art will also appreciate that the data structuresdiscussed above may be structured in different manners, such as byhaving a single data structure split into multiple data structures or byhaving multiple data structures consolidated into a single datastructure. Similarly, in some embodiments illustrated data structuresmay store more or less information than is described, such as when otherillustrated data structures instead lack or include such informationrespectively, or when the amount or types of information that is storedis altered.

From the foregoing it will be appreciated that, although specificembodiments have been described herein for purposes of illustration,various modifications may be made without deviating from the spirit andscope of the invention. Accordingly, the invention is not limited exceptas by the appended claims and the elements recited therein. In addition,while certain aspects of the invention are discussed in certain claimforms, the inventors contemplate the various aspects of the invention inany available claim form. For example, while only some aspects of theinvention may currently be recited as being embodied in acomputer-readable medium, other aspects may likewise be so embodied.

1. A computer-implemented method for a central server computing systemto provide functionality based on location-based virtual groups of usersof mobile devices, the method comprising: creating multiple temporarylocation-based virtual groups of users of mobile devices by, for each ofthe virtual groups, receiving information from a user to define thevirtual group, the received information including an anchor point with ageographic location around which a geographic area of the virtual groupis centered, termination criteria indicating when the temporary virtualgroup will end, and user interaction rules that specify types of actionsthat users who are part of the virtual group may take; receivingrequests from multiple users to join the virtual group, each of theusers having a mobile communication-capable device that providesinformation regarding a current geographic location of the user; and foreach of the received requests from the multiple users, determiningwhether to admit the user to the virtual group based at least in part onthe current geographic location of the user being within the geographicarea of the virtual group; and for each of the created virtual groups ofusers, automatically providing functionality to the users of the virtualgroup in accordance with the user interaction rules of the virtual groupbased at least in part on enabling communications between the mobilecommunication-capable devices of the users of the virtual group. 2-66.(canceled)